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Stradbroke Online - The Village Website

Stradbroke Online provides visitors and residents with up to date and comprehensive information about our village. See also "About Stradbroke." We welcome your comments and any suggestions you may have for improvements and any information you would like to see published...........................................................................................................................

Welcome to Stradbroke

Back by popular demand is Mark Mitchels who will be talking about the poet, John Clare, onThursday, April 26th at 2.00pm in the Community Centre. The cost is £6.00 including refreshmentsand all are welcome.

John Clare was an extraordinary poet who lived a tragic life after very humble beginnings. Markwill take us through Clare’s life and remind us of what a great poet and observer of country life andhuman emotion he was.Mark’s talks are always very well attended so please let me know if you intend to come along atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 01379 384248 or 07730011951I am sure you are looking forward to this event as much as I am.Gillian Rennie-Dunkerley

The Police will be outside the Community Centre on Friday March 16th from 1-3pm The main purpose of this event is to ensure people are aware that the theft of power tools have been targeted in this area over the last 12 months. It is not just here but across the county and even in neighbouring counties.

The police would also like to ensure that members of the community take action themselves to protect their own property and will be promoting the “TOOL S.M.A.R.T” campaign, showing examples of property marking systems and “CUBE” van CCTV system.

Work has started on a range of improvements to the Community Centre costing over £40,000 thanks to grants from Mid Suffolk District Council’s Community Grant Scheme (£5,000) and the Section 106 fund (£27,907). The latter is made of developer contributions the Council has set aside for village halls. The Community Centre then provided the rest of the money from its own reserves

Electricians moved in on Monday to install new energy-efficient lighting in the Main Hall and Webb Room and a new heating system designed to be much more flexible in meeting the diverse needs of different groups ranging from fitness classes to more sedentary activities.

As can be seen from the photos a happy band of volunteers set about giving the hall a good clean and making use of the scissor lift, on hire for the electricians, to do the high level work. The group also assembled the new portable staging, this proved a bit more of a challenge than first expected but practice will make perfect.

The staging, together with surround sound audio and a new projector, will not only enhance the cinematic experience but help attract performing arts to the Centre. The staging was used to provide tiered seating for the film on Thursday and proved a great success with all the raised seats being occupied first.

A sound-proof partition is to be installed between the hall and the Webb Room and once all the work is completed in 2-3 months the Centre will be re-decorated throughout.

We hope that all this work will be of benefit to all users of the Centre and enable us to attract even more users and different events. Watch out for updates as the work progresses.

You are warmly invited to the next WEA talk on Wednesday, March 21st at 2.00pm in the Community Centre. Our speaker is Stuart Bowell – a former WEA tutor – who is very popular and engaging – with a lively, illustrated talk not only about the events themselves but the people involved and the stories that emerged. I can guarantee that everyone in the audience will be thoroughly entertained. The cost is £6.00 to include tea/coffee served at 1.45pm. Please book your place by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 01379 384248 or 07730011951

Advance Notice: Mark Mitchels is returning to Stradbroke on Thursday, April 26th at 2.00pm to talk about the poet, John Clare. More details next month.